Catholicism study days have started at St Augustine’s Abbey, Chilworth. Benedictine monk Fr John was absolutely delighted to welcome 11 newcomers to the first of the 'Learn about Catholicism' study days at the beginning of September. The next one is on Saturday 1 October 2022. Held in a room at the rear of the Benedictine monastery of St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth, near Guildford, the study days continue one Saturday every month from now on. They are free to attend, there's no need to book and everyone is welcome. Donations are welcome. The study days are based on Catholicism – a journey to the heart of the faith by the acclaimed author and speaker Bishop Barron. Each day is given by one of the Benedictine monks, Fr John Seddon OSB who will show the episodes Bishop Barron has recorded on video, contextualise them and then teach and lead discussions about their subject matter. Discussion subjects over the series of study days include: the Mystery of God; Jesus’s teachings; Prayer; the Church; the Eucharist; the Communion of Saints; Mary as the Mother of God; Ss Peter and Paul as missionaries of the Church; The Incarnation; Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
A group of survivors of abuse who were consulted as part of the Irish Church’s synodal discussions have called for “a gospel-based approach to dealing with abuse within the Church”. The eight survivors said a gospel-based approach would involve setting aside considerations such as the reputation of the institution, money and financial assets, and status and power, in order to encounter survivors at a human level and respond to them as Jesus responded to those he met in the course of his ministry. They said the way in which survivors of abuse are treated as ‘damaged people’ was “particularly objectionable” as the damaged people are those who abuse children and those who deny, minimise and cover up abuse. Secondary victimisation, one survivor pointed out, is double abuse and impacts the family of the survivors, as well as the survivors themselves.
As the cost-of-living crisis escalates, the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ireland has said it expects a record number of people to seek its help this winter. The charity has seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of struggling households seeking help from it so far this year. According to Patricia Keilty, head of social justice and policy at the SVP, one in three calls to the charity are from those facing food poverty. “It is the one bill people have control over and so it is the first thing that gets cut,” she told the Irish Times and added, “We are planning for a very difficult winter.” According to Ms Keilty, the SVP is dealing with calls for help from people who have not needed its support since the last recession. The Irish government has brought forward the publication of its budget to September 27th due to the increased pressure on people over the rising cost of living and high inflation rates.
The psychiatrist and crossbench peer Baroness Hollins of Wimbledon and Grenoside will deliver the Catholic Union’s Craigmyle Lecture, postponed from 19 September with the new date still to be determined, on the subject of “Keeping Children and Young Adults Safe – Insights from the Vatican”. Professor Sheila Hollins has served as president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and of the British Medical Association, and was made a life peer in 2010. She was appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Protection of Minors by Pope Francis in 2014, and in 2020 chaired the UK government’s review of the treatment of people with learning disabilities and autistic people in long-term segregation.
A former naval officer is suing the Ministry of Defence for discrimination, on the grounds the he was denied career opportunities after expressing his Christian opposition to the use of nuclear weapons. Antonio Jardim told an employment tribunal that he was not asked about nuclear weapons when he joined the navy as a weapons engineering officer in 2019, but when he made his objections known during a training course on HMS Vanguard, a Trident submarine, he was removed by senior officers and faced “in-depth questions on my views, relationships and background”. He said he had been subject to “a series of connected acts of discriminatory treatment based on my religious beliefs”.
The lead singer of British folk-rock band Mumford and Sons was among celebrities who met the Pope last week at a Vatican conference on the common good. The Vitae Summit, which attracted participants from around the world and across the creative arts, played host to American actors Denzel Washington and Patricia Heaton, Italian singer Andrea Bocelli and Columbian reggaeton star J Balvin. At the conference, the Pope told attendees - all of whom were Christian, but not necessarily Catholic, according to organisers, that they were “preachers of beauty”. The summit was organised by the Vitae Foundation, which aims to raise awareness of the common good through art, music and the building of a “culture of encounter”.
Concern has been raised about access to a graveyard in Sketty, Swansea, after the land and the cemetery chapel were put up for sale. Bethel Chapel is an independent chapel dating from 1870, where chapel trustees said a dwindling and ageing congregation forced them “to make this extremely difficult decision”. Families whose loved ones are buried there want access to continue and for the site to be maintained after the sale. Some have three or four generations of their families interred. A spokesperson for Cadw, the Welsh government agency that works to protect historic buildings and structures, said: "When chapels become redundant, the future of any graveyards will depend on the arrangements made by individual congregations or denominations.” Campaigners say the site is home to some graves of historic importance. James Owen, who defended the supply depot at Rorke’s Drift in South Africa in 1879 against Zulu warriors, is buried at Bethel. Also, Welsh missionary Griffith John, who lived in China for over 50 years and founded the Union Hospital in Wuhan province.
The UK must champion and commit money to a new global fund to pay for the damage caused by climate change, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund has demanded. The charity launched a petition last week, in anticipation of Liz Truss’s victory in the Conservative Party leadership contest, calling on the new prime minister “to take bold action and pay up for damages that countries like ours have caused”. It said the UK should begin payments to the world’s poorest countries, and to use the UK’s influence from COP26 to urge other wealthy nations to do the same.
Former president of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese, has strongly criticised the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life for posting “misogynistic claptrap” on women on its website. In a section providing source material from early church theologians the website’s quotes extensively from the early Church writer, Tertullian, in which he chastises women as “the devil's gateway” and claims that “on account of your desert - even the Son of God had to die.” Ms McAleese described the material as “outrageous, ignorant, unacceptable” and said it should be removed “immediately” unless the Church considers Tertullian’s views to be in line with its teachings. “It absolutely beggars belief that this misogynistic claptrap is highlighted, reproduced in the 21st century and offered from the heartland of the magisterium,” she criticised. Separately, last week, seven women were arrested by police at the Vatican over their protest calling for women’s inclusion at all levels of the Catholic Church. One of those arrested, Miriam Duignan, a spokesperson for the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research in the UK, said she hoped the protest would stir the collective conscience of Church leadership to open its doors to women who long to be heard and to serve their church as equals in Christ.
The Archbishop St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, sent condolences to Sancta Maria Abbey in Nunraw, Haddington, saying it was a “sad time” for all, after three members of the community, Fr Thomas Hood, Fr Raymond Jaconelli and Br Philip Bell, died within a few weeks of each other. Archbishop Cushley said: “I offer my condolences and prayers to the community and the families of the Fr Hood, Fr Jaconelli and Br Bell. These men were driven by faith and they were each dedicated to serving God in the Cistercian community at Nunraw by following the Gospel in prayer and work. It is that very faith that reassures us at this time that they will rest in peace and rise in glory.”
An English seminarian has asked the United Nations in New York to end nuclear weapons as part of international talks reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. During his visit to New York, Aaron Humphriss, representing the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (known as Christian CND), warned of "catastrophic consequences" were nuclear weapons to be used again. During the visit he addressed politicians from around the world and met with the city governor of Hiroshima, Hidehiko Yuzaki, alongside survivors of the nuclear attack on the Japanese city in 1945. The Non-proliferation treaty, opened for signature in 1968, commits signatories to work towards the abolition of nuclear weapon stockpiles, and has so far been ratified by 191 UN Member-states.
Two teenage boys who tragically drowned in a Co Derry lough were “a huge gift” in their life and their death has been traumatic for many in the community, the Bishop of Derry has said. Speaking at the Funeral Mass for Joseph Sebastian and Reuven Simon at Ardmore Parish, Bishop Donal McKeown said the boys were being handed back, “so reluctantly to the strong hands of the God who made them in love”. The young students were from the city’s Syro-Malabar Church community and had been due to return to St Columb’s College in Derry after receiving their GCSE results. At the joint funeral service, Bishop McKeown described the Syro-Malabar Church community as very strong and close knit. “They will work together to support the bereaved and the traumatised through the next difficult weeks and months.” In his homily, Fr Michael Canny told Joseph and Rueven’s families: “You have made this city your home, a city and a people that are no strangers to pain and deep suffering. You as families who are suffering so sorely can now draw from that deep well of empathy and love that your adoptive city is so ready and willing to offer.”
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